Ireland is waking up to e-cigarettes.
This morning the Irish Times asks, 'Is vaping safer than smoking?'.
Intellicig (part of the CN Creative Group, "a bioscience company committed to the development of the next era of nicotine products") reports that:
The phones are hopping on Liveline, Joe Duffy can’t believe the amount of people calling him to tell their stories of how they made the switch to electronic e-cigarettes … E-cigs are fast becoming the alternative of choice for many smokers throughout Ireland.
Last night Prime Time, RTE's flagship current affairs programme, even featured a debate on the subject.
Guests included Kathleen O'Meara of the Irish Cancer Society, someone representing the pharmacists (I'll have to check his name and organisation), and Clive Bates, former director of ASH and a leading e-cig campaigner, on a link from London.
John Mallon, our man in Ireland, reports:
They played a tape of a doctor claiming that e-cigs are a stepping stone to smoking, that far from quitting smokers are using both to get around the bans and restrictions, and that no research has been done into them.
Bates wiped the floor with him, explaining we know EXACTLY what goes into them and that they are 99-100 per cent safer than smoking. He went on to suggest that the big loser was Big Pharma.
Credit where credit's due, "Bates was good!" says John. O'Meara however was "quieter than normal".
Meanwhile, in the words of Intellicig, here are some reasons for switching to e-cigarettes:
• Significantly less harmful chemicals compared to smoking cigarettes
• Much cheaper. Save up to 80%.
• Smoke anywhere
• No need to smell like an ashtray
• No tobacco or no smoke tar
• Cleaner smoking experience
"No need to smell like an ashtray"? Charming. I know lots of smokers and none of them smell like ashtrays.
If the e-cig industry could cut out these unnecessary comments it would help them enormously, I would suggest. Politely.
One other thing. In my previous post I highlighted the fact that e-cig campaigners want e-cigarettes removed from the Tobacco Products Directive.
Perfectly understandable.
Then again, the e-cig industry doesn't help itself by consistently using words like "smoke" ("smoke anywhere") and "smoking" ("cleaner smoking experience") to promote itself.
I understand why they do it but it's a bit rich to use the language of combustibles and then complain when the product is included in legislation designed to regulate combustibles.
They can't have it both ways.
PS. To view the Prime Time debate click here. It begins at 13:32.
The other guest in Prime Time's Dublin studio was the Secretary-General of the Irish Pharmacy Union. Needless to say, both he and O'Meara were in favour of medicinal regulation for e-cigs.